The following CDs are among the first 12 releases in A&M's new "Classics" series. "Joe Cocker." A&M (AAD). This 13-song/51-minute entry showcases one of the most compelling singers of the modern pop era. Cocker was as close to a male Janis Joplin as rock has produced, and Bud Scoppa's liner notes capture well the frequently absorbing qualities of this gritty, blues-based singer's intensely dramatic style.

The UCLA Library has completed its acquisition of the A&M Records Collection, a compendium of recordings, music manuscripts, photographs, correspondence and other materials from the personal collection of label founders Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, who donated them to UCLA. The archive is believed to be one of the only such collections installed in a library.

Bob Dylan plays Staples Center on Oct. 19, but if you can't wait, he has a date at UC Santa Barbara Events Center on Oct. 14 and at the RIMAC Arena at UC San Diego on Oct. 17. All three shows go on sale Sept. 9 .... Cypress Hill, Busta Rhymes, the Deftones and NOFX play the Smoke Out tour at Glen Helen Blockbuster Pavilion on Oct. 6. Tickets on sale Saturday .... Ray Davies, right, performs Oct. 19 at the John Anson Ford Theatre, tickets available Sunday morning ....

KLOS-FM (95.5) and KABC-TV Channel 7 are sponsoring a blood drive Aug. 6, 7 and 8. Donors will receive commemorative T-shirts and can choose a free Greek Theatre concert ticket for either the Steve Miller Band on Aug. 20; Grand Funk Railroad on Aug. 21; Buddy Guy & Johnny Lang on Aug. 22; or Joe Cocker on Sept. 25. Donors must be at least 17, weigh at least 100 pounds and be in good health. Donations will be taken at the following locations: the Claremont Inn in Claremont; KLOS Funzone (Aug.

Jimmy Webb, "Suspending Disbelief," Elektra.** 1/2 On his first recording in a decade of his own music, Webb's unaffected, down-home approach to his tunes--despite their sometimes dark qualities--imparts a strikingly easygoing quality not always present in other singers' versions.

Jimi Hendrix's dive-bombing guitar runs on "The Star-Spangled Banner." Rain chants. Joe Cocker's chicken strut. The love, mud and three days of music. The Woodstock experience is a museum piece now. The Museum at Bethel Woods opens Monday on the site of the old dairy farm northwest of New York City that was trampled under by some 400,000 people on the wet weekend of Aug. 15-17, 1969. Part of a $100-million music and arts center, it tells the story of Woodstock. Mocked recently by conservatives as a "hippie museum," the exhibits actually give a thorough look at the generation-defining concert and the noisy decade that led up to it. Displays include a run of the chain link fence placed around the concert site in a futile bid to keep out freeloaders and a plaque telling the story of Leni Binder, a local woman who made peanut butter sandwiches for the concert kids.